Research of employee university engagement

Abstract

The article is based on the materials of research on engagement of academic and teaching staff at one department that was conducted in autumn 2015 at Novosibirsk State University of Economics and Management. The changes in the higher education system and university management require active participation of academic and teaching staff in the implementation of changes and university activities improvement. The aim of the research article is to evaluate the level of academic and teaching staff engagement on the basis of questionnaires results. Research results help in defining overall engagement level as well as individual types of engagement (physical, emotional and cognitive) and identify main problem areas decreasing engagement level. The analysis of work satisfaction level was conducted and main dissatisfaction aspects were identified. The research results show that total engagement level of lecturers is quite high and is 66 %. In terms of different engagement types indicators are even higher: cognitive engagement is demonstrated by 80 % of participants; physical engagement is demonstrated by 74,6 % and emotional engagement by 73.5 %. However the conducted research does not claim overall picture coverage in terms of academic and pedagogical staff as it was conducted among part of academic and teaching staff of one department. Nevertheless it allows for formulating basic trends in terms of improving academic and teaching university staff engagement level. The article presents one of the first attempts at evaluating university teaching staff engagement level. It can be of interest for university management as it allows for making conclusion concerning current position and also for researchers who can proceed with their own method of evaluating staff engagement level.